I Ate Like a Pig, Drank Like a Fish & Ran For My Life...Lunch with STNNNG at 7th Street Entry on 11/18/06

By: Charlie Vaughan
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There was a long shivering line of fans peeling back from the entrance to the 7th Street Entry. It was a cold, granite colored afternoon with a sharp wind sweeping between the towering glass buildings of downtown Minneapolis, and I was bearing down on First Avenue like a wayward cannonball. One by one, the head of the line was slowly being swallowed by the squat black-bricked building through its nondescript doorway. I tucked my ears deeper into my coat collar and barreled toward the end o...

Duplomacy with Deep Pool, Luke's Angels and Mandrew at Hexagon Bar on 11/17/06

By: Pat O'Brien
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Sounding like they shot a crooked arrow through a few of the better indie bands from the last twenty years or so (fIREHOSE, Sebadoh, a bit of Superchunk with a small dose of ‘70s “classic rock” sensibility), Mandrew slowly built their set into a what could have easily been the soundtrack to a sunny Minnesota summer afternoon spent in your buddy’s backyard drinking beer and trading stories you both had heard a million times before. The music was comfortable, broken-i...

The Bill Mike Band with Little Man at Lee's Liquor Lounge on 11/17/06

By: David Rachac
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After being blown away seeing Bill Mike play solo acoustic at the MMA booth at the Wild River Festival in September, I bought the Bill Mike Band’s CD Better News and was equally stunned.  The album contained eight fresh-sounding, guitar-driven hybrid-pop songs that evoked a menagerie of early ‘90s alternative rock styles with none of the overwrought posturing that normally accompanies them. And seeing this power trio play at Lee’s just added to my admiration of them ...

Love in October at The Whole on 11/10/06

By: Stacey Kaplan
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Love in October was formed by the Swedish Widman brothers, Erik on guitar/vocals and Kent on bass, who moved to Minneapolis to pursue their musical dreams. They are joined by Nik Pfeifer on guitar and Kyle Johanson on drums. In the past few months, the guys have garnered an impressive following thanks in part to their MySpace popularity and witty YouTube videos (available through their website). However, it is their infectious music, best experienced live, that keeps you coming back for m...

The Glad Version w/ SKIRT and The Envy Corps at 400 Bar on 11/10/06

By: Pat O'Brien
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“Shut up, Jim.” The crowd at The 400 heard that approximately a dozen times from the stage during The Envy Corps’ set on Friday night. They drove up from Ames, Iowa through a snowstorm, with a lot of fans in tow, it seemed. They were cheering, whooping and one fan (the aforementioned Jim) was particularly boisterous in his praise, which they seemed used to dealing with, but were maybe a tad embarrassed by given that they were from out of town. They had nothing to be asha...

Rift 36 Hour Songwriting Contest #3 at Bryant Lake Bowl on 11/4/06

By: Andrea Myers
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Rift Magazine editor Rich Horton chose a matinee timeslot to present the third in a series of songwriting contests, and the daytime show proved to be a nice way to take in a set of on-the-fly performances.  While audience members ordered breakfast items and sipped bloody marys, a rotating cast of local musicians displayed their ability to write songs in a controlled setting; each participant learned the assigned song topic (which, for this contest, was public transportation) a mere 36...

The Mad Ripple Hootenanny at Java Jack's on 11/3/06

By: Andrea Myers
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I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I saw Jim Walsh's MySpace bulletin, which was posted Friday afternoon, advertising a hootenanny for that very evening. The information in the bulletin was short and sweet: "All ages. Hootenanny. Round-robin. 6:30-8:30. Java Jack's, 46th and Bryant, sexy South Mpls. BYOFlask." Oh, and the bulletin name-dropped a certain member of the Jayhawks. At a coffee shop. I was very intrigued. Having missed the...

Wookiefoot with God Johnson at Cabooze on 10/28/06

By: Kristine Lambert
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God Johnson’s lead singer was appropriately dressed as Darth Vader for this pre-Halloween jam.  He lost his mask shortly thereafter even though there were no vocals until the third song, except for the one-syllable yeahallrightyeah!  They sounded like a saxophone-heavy String Cheese Incident.  Well into the set, the crowd really started moving with the up-beat rap-jam that had David Byrne-style vocals, singing “our president’s crazy.”  The song...

The Winter Blanket EP Release Party at The Turf Club on 10/27/06

By: Bob Longmore
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Given that this was one of the last mild weather weekends of 2006, it’s time to warm ourselves in the bars late at night, with the sound of local music guiding the way. Three examples of the kind of music that I think can only be made by someone who has lived through the darkness of a Minnesota winter were on display at the Turf Club. Once the St. Louis Cardinals clinched the World Series, and Duplomacy guitarist Adam Egerdahl figured out the...

An epic review of The Hold Steady at First Avenue on 10/24/06

By: Charlie Vaughan
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With a final salute of pulsating guitar the curtain came down on the first of two consecutive nights at First Avenue for The Hold Steady, and the curtain came down hard. The band bounced off the main room stage for the third time and disappeared into the waiting galleys as the house lights rose over the audience. The sudden burst of light sent the sold out crowd streaming for the exits like rats fleeing a burning ship—drunken, sweaty rats with beer stains down the front of their shirts a...